What Does a Conductor Do?

I am NOT familiar with orchestras, instruments, symphonies…anything about classical music. But! My son LOVED Beethoven’s Symphony No.9. Notably, the second movement, “Molto vivace.” He only wanted to listen to the Molto vivace part over and over again!

I realized that he has his tuxedo set in our closet. We used them for my son’s Halloween costume to be Sir Topham Hatt from the TV series Thomas & Friends. I thought it might be fun to dress up and use chopstick as a conductor baton, then pretend like an orchestra conductor with his favorite song, Beethoven’s Symphony No.9, the Movement 2 Molto vivace playing!
I asked him if he wanted to do it, and he was super excited.

What We Used

• Tuxedo set (Optional)
• Bow tie (Optional)
• White dress shirts
• Chopstick or straw
• Phone or music player for playing classical music

How We Did

He was sooooo happy after he is done. He got so passionate about it and repeated the act a couple times. So glad we did this activity before his tuxedo couldn’t fit on him!

Resources for Learning Topics

Videos

This video was very helpful to understand the conductors job.

Details about this video: This Class Notes video answers the question “What Does a Conductor Do?” The vibrant American conductor Sarah Hicks interacts directly with the young students in the video to spark their interest in the conductor’s art and give them a taste of the great music it expresses.

This video was very helpful to understand the orchestra and the conductor

Details about this video: George as he chats with players of the Sydney Youth Orchestra and learns all about the four families of the orchestra – strings, brass, woodwind, and percussion.

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Happy learning!